Power of Words

Writer Shelley Jackson has written a story, using volunteers from all over the world to be the pages in her book. Volunteers must get one word from the story tattooed on their bodies. 1850 of the 2095 words have been assigned and about 500 words have been tattooed. All words must be tattooed in a classic book font, in black ink, and can be put anywhere on the body, as long as they are visible to the naked eye. Since the project began, she has had nearly 17,000 requests to be in the book.Jackson says, “They are not understood as carriers or agents of the texts they bear, but as its embodiments.” If the word is changed in any way (tattoo cover-up, laser surgery, loss of body part), it is still a part of the text. Only the death of a participant erases the word from the story. Jackson promises, “As words die the story will change; when the last word dies the story will also have died.”